At the Oct. 26 meeting of the Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce, the Riverside County Medical Association presented a $25,000 check to the Inland Empire Coalition UCR Medical School Fund to support efforts to bring a four-year medical school to UC Riverside.

The RCMA has been a longtime supporter of the UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences. Many of our physician members teach at UCR, provide summer internships in their medical practices and mentor the students.

Each year, the RCMA invites students to join the association, and typically more than 98 percent of the first-year medical students join. Even after they leave Riverside to continue their studies at UCLA, many of these students elect to keep their membership in the RCMA. Currently, we have more than 80 UCR medical students as members.

The RCMA's goal in supporting the development of the medical school is to create internship and residency programs, which are key to keeping more young doctors in the Inland Empire.